Jamie almost rolled her eyes. Cinderella had come ill-dressed for the ball, again.
“You’re late,” Christine complained, letting her in. "But I guess I'll deal." She sighed dramatically and then looked Jamie over with a critical eye, eyeing the breakfast shake with disgust. "Honestly, Jamie, you could at least try to follow a diet," Christine said, grabbing the shake out of Jamie's hands. "Milkshakes in the morning? What are you even thinking?”
"It's a protein shake," Jamie said, but Christine was already walking into the kitchen and pouring the liquid into the sink. She glanced around, relieved not to see Stephen.
"Oh, please," Christine said, setting the empty cup on the sideboard. "I know you, Jamie. You wouldn't drink something healthy if your life depended on it. Which it does, if you think about it."
Jamie's stomach growled. She had only drank a few sips of the shake on the way there and she knew it wouldn’t be long before she was ravenous. She sipped her coffee slowly, hoping it would fill her up. Her sister had her best interest at heart, and was more than nervous for a wedding that shouldn’t happen. Her husband-to-be was an ass. "What do you want to do first?" she asked, sitting down on the black leather couch and surveying her former apartment.
Unlike the funky style she had taken with her apartment, with thrift store couches and artwork from local artists, Christine and Stephen had decorated it in a pseudo-intellectual style. The TV was hidden in a dark wood cabinet and bookshelves lined the walls with leather bound books. Prints of famous paintings hung on the walls and there was a fake fireplace on one side of the room where flames were dancing and projecting patterns onto the mahogany coffee table in the middle of the room. It would make anyone seem smart and educated until you looked at the books and realized none of the bindings had ever been cracked. Christine spent more of her time poring through junk magazines than anything else and Stephen watched sports in his free time. Their decorations seemed as fake as their personalities. Jamie scolded herself for thinking that. It wasn’t her life, or her place to judge.
"I think we should go over the seating arrangements," Christine said, laying a folder on the coffee table as if it was a business meeting. "I don't know who to sit with who. Plus, it’s going to look funny at the head table with just a best man. So, I figured I’d put most of the wedding party together. Everyone who fits.” She waited a moment, purposely reminding Jamie she wasn’t doing her maid of honor part, and thus, had been forced to step down.
"Let's not focus on me, how about we just concentrate on the seating arrangements?" Jamie forced herself to smile, knowing exactly what her sister was thinking.
"Whatever you say, milkshake girl." Christine smirked and then pulled up the diagram of the seating arrangements. She had penciled Jamie's name in on a table way in the corner, not at the head table where the wedding party was eating. She wrote big enough so Jamie's name took up two seats.
Jamie bit down her anger. The kids’ table? Really?
Just then Stephen came out of the bedroom from the hall, looking just as immaculately and stiffly dressed as Christine did. He wore a thousand-dollar suit with the jacket, tie. "Have you made coffee, Christine?"
"It's in the pot, dear, all fresh and ready." Christine flashed him her sweetest smile.
"Thank you, darling." He looked up with a grin at the two of them, but his smile disappeared when Christine’s attention went back to the guest list. He glared at Jamie. "I'll be in my room if you need me, Christine."
"Okay, dear," she said. As soon as he was gone she turned to Jamie with a glare. "What the hell did you do to him?" she hissed. "I've never seen him look so uncomfortable in my life."
"I didn't do anything!" Jamie said defensively. And she hadn't. Aside from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, she was the victim. She straightened. I’m no damn victim! He could have the decency to apologize or act humiliated for his actions. He certainly hadn't been ashamed when he started fucking her sister. She wasn't sure why he was any different now.
"Well, whatever it is, you have to apologize to him," Christine said. "I can't have my maid of honor pissing off my groom, now can I?"
"I didn't do anything, I swear!" She was Christine’s maid of honor again? She thought she’d been demoted. She almost giggled, except the thought of Christine telling her to apologize to Stephen irked her too much.
Christine smiled indulgently. "I'm sure whatever vulgar or uncivilized thing you did, you thought was perfectly normal, Jamie. But that doesn't mean the rest of us who have taste think that acting like a barbarian is acceptable at any occasion."
Jamie closed her eyes and counted to ten. "I didn't do anything," she said, gritting her teeth. "I have nothing to apologize for. And don’t talk to me like that. I’m your sister."
"I don't care what you think you've done," Christine said. "You’ve obviously done something and I can't have you messing up my wedding. So either apologize to my fiancé… or… or…”
“Or what? You going to knock me out of the prized position again?” Jamie covered her mouth in surprise. She knew better than to mock her sister. Fangs and claws came out when you did that.
Christine frowned as her face burned red. “You stupid, fat bitch! You think you’re better than everyone, don’t you? If you fuck up, you apologize.”
Suddenly, months of rage and resentment boiled up in Jamie and she couldn't force it to stay down. "I’m stupid?!" she shouted. "I don't want to be your dumb-ass maid of honor anyway! Your husband-to-be is an ass! Yo
u’re too imprudent to see it! Let Scarlet enjoy your constant bitchy phone calls and stupid breakdowns because I’m done! So fucking done!" She wanted to rant about Stephen and his dumb-ass ways as well, but managed to bite her tongue. She needed food. She needed a sister on her side. Well, screw them all!
"Good! I told Mom you wouldn’t make it!" Christine snapped. "You're lucky I'm letting you even come to my wedding at all, you ungrateful jealous bitch!”
“Jealous?” Jamie spat back, not believing her sister thought she was jealous.
“Of my husband!” Christine poked at her own chest. “You wish you were still with him!”
“No, I fucking don’t.” She shook her head. “Never in a million years.”
Christine was no longer listening. “I never even wanted you in the wedding party to begin with, especially when it's so clear you don't even love me enough to fix that stupid weight problem of yours. Is it really too much to ask that you stop hoarding for the apocalypse in your damn body? Honestly, Jamie, why would I want a blubbering whale like you ruining my wedding photos?"
“You are such a bitch!” Tears stung Jamie's eyes as she got up.